Shriners Children's Helps Jennessa's Real-life Cinderella Prom

For most teenagers, being voted prom queen might be the memory they carry forward from senior prom.

But Jennessa, 17, from eastern Iowa, will also always remember her shoes thanks to the care she received at Shriners Children’s Chicago. The teen was able to wear the cute sneakers she wanted after a childhood orthopedic condition threatened her footwear goals.

Pediatric orthopedic surgeons treated Jennessa for macrodactyly as a child, a condition where the toes and foot develop differently. It can make a foot and/or the toes much bigger than the others. She had two surgeries as a child to manage the condition. In 2023, she returned to Shriners Children's with a new goal. As she grew her foot had gotten larger, but she really wanted to fit into sneakers for senior prom. “I’ve seen this before ... as the child grows the tissue sometimes swells,” said Clark Schierle, M.D., Ph.D., a plastic surgeon at Shriners Children’s who began treating Jennessa in 2023.